First Anniversary Trip, San Diego

So sometime back in May or June (when I was really burnt out) I booked our anniversary trip. Since John didn't really care where we went, and I was the one doing the planning, I picked San Diego. I have really happy memories from there, since it was a major vacation place for my family, just about my whole life. In fact, my parents went there on their honeymoon, then turned it into a family vacation place as we got older. It seemed kind of appropriate for me to share it with John, since he had never been there. I will admit that it was strange to be the navigator of the trip, since I am fairly certain I never saw either of my parents with a map any of the times we went. We found our way to a lot of cool places, and are both glad to say we experienced everything!



Wednesday: Laguna Beach

John found out Tuesday afternoon that he would not have to work Wednesday. We were going to leave early Thursday morning, but decided spontaneously to leave Wednesday afternoon. I found a random hotel in Laguna Beach that turned out to be wonderful. It was really affordable, cute and close to the beach. I am going to book it for a weekend in October when I need to get away. :)



The view from a balcony that was right across from our room. (The hosted a "Wine and Cheese Hour" every night on the balcony, and I wondered why they don't host a "Diet Dr. Pepper and Popcorn Hour," since it's cheaper and tastes better anyway...)

My camera was still on black and white from our doggy photo shoot a few days before.

Headed to church in my vacation dress.

Thursday: Laguna Beach to San Diego

We got to have free breakfast at another hotel's restaurant. Both hotels were on Hwy 1, which made it a little trafficky, but everything is within walking distance. We look forward to staying there again (soon)!

Since we couldn't check in to our hotel until 3, we went straight to Balboa park. I know I have been there several times, but I only remember the last time, when I was in my unfortunate why-are-you-making-me-have-a-fun-time-when-I-want-to-be-annoyed adolescent phase. Needless to say, this time was much more fun. I didn't realize that Balboa park is more than just a park with a playground, but is more like Central Park in New York City. Ok, I am sure it is not that big, but it helps you get the idea. The buildings were beautiful, and there were so many choices of museums and things to do that we had a hard time deciding! We ended up going to the Museum of Art, the Auto Museum and the Air Museum. These were interesting experiences for both of us: John never having been in an art museum, and me never having gone to an Air or Auto Museum by choice. A good time was had by all, nevertheless!

On the patio of the visitor's center.

John looking at the "Portraits of Power" exhibit of photos by Richard Avedon. I snapped this photo speedy quick, just as the museum worker came over and sternly said "Miss..." I knew I wasn't supposed to, but I wasn't trying to steal pictures of the artwork, I just wanted proof that John was in an art museum! I stopped him before he could fully reprimand me and said "I know, I am putting it away!" with a smile and an about face. John learned that his favorite types of art show an ability that he does not have himself, and that are realistic and require less interpretation. I personally like interpreting more abstract art, but also appreciate simple realism.

These sculptures were covered in sparkly pieces of glass that didn't really come out in the pictures!

I almost swallowed my teeth when I saw this original restored Mini. It was so cute and perfect that it made me miss Gemma. Someday John is going to rebuild me one just like this.

After wandering through all of the cars, John decided that this Coronet was his favorite. I don't remember exactly, but I am pretty sure that the horse power on this car was near 500 (?). This explains why John laughed when he saw that my favorite mini there had a whopping 68.

We started getting hungry and tired, so we decided to head to our hotel. We were able to check in a little early, and this hotel was also wonderful! It was the Sheraton on Harbor Island, which had beautiful water views. I celebrated this awesome news by getting a vicious and gripping headache, that resulted in a hour and a half long nap with ensuing grogginess. This was disappointing, but I learned to keep drinking water, taking advil and eating.

The View from our Balcony.

The only thing that was not the greatest was the tv. I know that I was in a lovely vacation spot, but I was raised that the first thing you do when you get to a hotel is check out the tv, then the pool. Since I don't do the pool thing anymore, tv is a big vacation thing for me! Anyway, it had few channels and would randomly interrupt programming with ads for what you could be watching on PPV.

When I got really annoyed with the tv, I would read. I was reading "In a Sunburnt Country" by Bill Bryson (no relation). There is nothing better than reading a book about travelling, while travelling, especially when the book was free!

Mona Lisa's in Little Italy has been a family regular for as long as I can remember. We went straight there for lunch, where I had their amazing minestrone soup and a turkey sandwich. John had the lasagna. We went back 2 more times, those times we had the pizza. Perfect meals, everytime.
We also drove around a bit, exploring Harbor Island (it's more of a short peninsula, but it felt like an island...), and also Point Loma.

Friday: Breakfast at Denny's in Point Loma, Seaport Village, La Jolla, back to Mona Lisa's

Talk about going to a place with a lot of memories: Seaport Village is definitely near the top of that list. I feel like I can visualize myself there at just about every point in my life. Being a little kid amazed by the kites in the park, being an older kid excited to wear my new imitation birkenstocks, being an adolescent annoyed by all of the walking, being a teenager excited to go there with Kim, even being an "adult" and going there by myself and with Isa. It was really special to be there with John, and even more special that he liked it just as much as I did.

The hammock store is one of my most favorite places. It really is just a store full of hammocks that you can actually lay in! I will always remember saving my money for months and months so that we could make a special trip there on my 14th birthday so I could by one like this for my bedroom. The hook where it hung is still in the ceiling of my mom's sewing "studio." I couldn't hang it in the apartment, so it got put away. I want to hang it up somewhere now that we have a house!

John wants to get one like this for the back yard.

After Seaport Village we drove up to La Jolla, which, again, is another place I have a lot of memories. I bought Harry Potter in French and the collected works of PG Wodehouse at John Cole's book store (at two separate times, of course). We ate cake and vanilla milkshakes at the Hard Rock Cafe. I decided to start eating more healthy while staying in a condo with the Blades, Browns and Carpenters off of the beach there. Taking John there was fun, but not as great as I remembered. It was really trafficky, there was no place to park, and of course, I got another headache (maybe I should do something about that?). I realized then that I had never really been there in the summer, that we usually went for a weekend during Christmas break, so that would explain the crowds and my frustration with them. Anyway, I was still glad we went, and maybe we will have to work it so we can go back again to enjoy less crowds.

Warwick's is an amazing place. They are a combination book and stationary store, which if you know me at all is a dangerous combination of 2 of my favorite things. If they sold frozen yogurt and Diet Dr. Pepper, I would never have to leave. I was very strong and only bought one journal type book and a fancy schmancy pen to go with it.

It was really sweet to be in a big hotel with John. I am still amazed and excited every time I enter a new hotel room for the first time, but there are still things that I take for granted because I have done it so often. John, on the other hand, hasn't really. This was his second time staying in a hotel with more than 2 floors (I had to explain that a MO-tel means you can back your car up to your door, but a HO-tel means all of the doors are on the inside) and he was constantly excited about our view, and by the things our room had to offer. I say all of this here because the above pictures are only a fraction of the ones he took from our balcony. Thank goodness for digital, because I would not have been happy with developing all of them! (I hope that I don't sounds condescending about this, because believe me: there have been plenty of times that I have been in shock about things he has done all of his life...)

Friday: Little Italy, Imperial Beach, Red Line to Fashion Valley, back to Mona Lisa's for dinner

This is the upstairs view from a really cool store in little Italy called Architectural Salvage. It is full of real pieces of architecture that was salvaged (hence the name) from real, old homes. It has a whole section of old doors in different colors, bins full of hinges, knobs and drawer pulls, old air conditioning grates, and so much more! I bought some cabinet pulls for the hall closet and some old heavy skeleton keys to use as decoration.

Next was, I think, our favorite part of the trip. We saw on the news that the 39th annual Sand Castle competition was going on this weekend in Imperial Beach. I had never been there before, and since we were kind of sick of the city, we decided to head down that way. It ended up being great! It is a small beach, that is kind of a cross between Pismo and Cayucos. Even with the crowds there for the event, it was not nearly as crowded as a Southern CA beach on a sunny summer day. It mainly consisted of 2 perpendicular ocean front streets (which on this weekend were filled with booths seeling food and other items) that had small hotels, restaurants and beach rentals. It was a very pleasant experience, pleasant enough that we think we are going to plan next year's vacation to be there. That way we can take day trips to San Diego, or even Mexico, if we wanted! Imperial Beach, by the way, is the most SouthWestern city in the United States. In fact, John and I both got texts from Verizon saying "Welcome to Mexico!" since we were using the cell phone towers there for reception!

M&M's were giving away free ice creams. As you can see, John enjoyed this.

We were just bummed we didn't bring the beach bag so we couldn't really sit down! We had to park far away, and didn't think we would need the towels and stuff. It definitely left us wanting more, and we will definitely go back!

John had also never been on public transportation, so we had to take the red line at least a little. We were pretty tired, though, so we mostly just ended up riding it from one end to the other, just to get the experience. We agreed that though you have to walk a little more, and sometimes wait for the train, it is much more convenient than driving. We will keep this in mind...

Sunday: Church in El Cajon, lunch at DZ Akins, home for afternoon worship, home sweet home!

We went to church in El Cajon, which I had been to before, but of course we got lost. Church was interesting to say the least. (Sometimes being away makes you thankful for home!). We decided as our last vacation meal to try to find my parents' favorite Deli, called DZ Akins. It was not too far from church and ended up being awesome! It is a true, New York style, Jewish Deli with about a million choices on the menu! I had a turkey sandwich and Matzo Ball soup (which I made John taste. He said it tasted like a giant ball of oatmeal floating in soup. I agreed with him, but I think we have differing opinions about it...) and John had a burger (of course).

We had to kind of hurry home to make it in time for afternoon worship. We made it in enough time to say hi to the doggies, and also to lament the fact that the temperature rose about 30 degrees on the drive home!

Of course it is always nice to sleep in your own bed again, but I don't think I will ever like coming home from a vacation. I have been trying hard all day to think of things to look forward to, and while I can, I would still trade them to be on the trip!

I am so thankful that we have the means to be able to go on trips like this, and that I have an awesome husband to travel with (finally!!).